About us

Leander Club is recognised the world over for its extraordinary achievements, having won more Olympic and World championship gold medals than any other club, and home to rowing heroes and to the champions of tomorrow.

Leander’s members enjoy a very socially active club that encourages good fellowship, celebrates success and values its heritage, stretching back to its formation in 1818.

Event Diary

Corporate

Commercial partners engage with Leander Club and our International and Academy athletes for brand and relationship-building purposes.

As our story to 2018 and Leander’s Bicentenary unfolds, partners and other corporate clients are enjoying opportunities to entertain customers at Henley Royal Regatta and campaign events, or to row with our athletes.

Not a Member?

Over the past 50 years Leander has steadily changed its membership from being almost exclusively Oxbridge to now being a Club with membership drawn from clubs and universities from all over the UK and from all around the world. Women first became Full Members of the Club in 1997 and are now fully integrated within the Club

The basic requirements for Full Membership have traditionally been “Good fellowship and excellence in the rowing, sculling, coxing or coaching of high performance in fine racing boats.” However, the Committee can also admit Full Members based on their services to rowing.

One important message is that individuals do not have to be invited to join the Club - anyone with the right qualifications is welcome to apply - you just need a proposer and a seconder.

Message from the President

After one of the
worst ever winters for rowing – the majority of the Heads cancelled because of
high river flows all over the country – this should be a pivotal moment for our
Club, our rowers, our staff and all our members. The clocks change this weekend
and we should be looking forward to a wonderful spring and summer – the regatta
season should soon be underway, Henley Royal Regatta will be offering a new
event for student women’s eights, the Opening Ceremony for the Tokyo Olympics
is scheduled for 24th July.

As I write this
message I am looking out the window at a beautiful blue sky, the river flow is
dropping steadily and there is a gentle wind. What could be wrong with this
picture?

Sadly, as we now
know, appearances can be deceptive. The spread of the Coronavirus around the
world has had a devastating impact on every single person, every business,
every institution – there are no exceptions. On Tuesday the Committee took the
inevitable decision to close the Club for all activities. Our athletes have
been allowed to take equipment home to continue their training – on Monday
evening I followed one of our women rowers across Henley Bridge,
towing an ergometer over her shoulder!

Henley Royal Regatta
has been cancelled, the announcement being made on the same day as the Olympic
Games in Tokyo were
postponed to 2021. This has had a huge impact on our Leander rowers – both
those at Caversham with Team GB and those training at the Club. Some will face
the challenging decision to continue for one more year than they had planned –
some may decide to call it a day. Happily, for most of our rowers training from
the Club their target is the Paris Olympics in 2024. Our coaching team will be
working hard to adapt training schedules to cope with a summer season with,
possibly, very few regattas.

The Club has
battened down the hatches – our office staff are working from home, our house
staff are engaged in a ‘super spring clean’ and there is a Duty Manager on site
to ensure the security of the Clubhouse. Sadly, the seemingly splendid
initiative to provide takeaway ‘crew meals’ from the Clubhouse has had to close
down – most of our crews have gone back home while other administrative
obstacles have been uncovered.

May I wish you
all a safe and healthy next few months. There will be an end to this dreadful
pandemic – may it come sooner rather than later.